When Troup wrestling coach Chris Mitchem entered his team in a tournament in Marietta, he did it with this weekend in mind.

On Saturday, Troup will compete in the area wrestling tournament at LaGrange High, and Mitchem felt the tournament in Marietta would serve as excellent preparation.

“The main reason we went to it, for me, it kind of simulates our region tournament,” Mitchem said. “It’s eight teams, and the competition’s about the same, maybe a little bit tougher. I wanted to simulate what an eight-team tournament would be like for the boys.”

The Tigers fared well, with six of their 10 wrestlers placing.

Leading the way was Michael Mackfield, who wrestled his way to a second-place finish at 220 pounds.

Mackfield was dominant en route to the finals before falling 3-2.

“He shoud have won. He didn’t wrestle like he could have,” Mitchem said. “It was his first finals match this year. He just didn’t wrestle like he wrestled the whole tournament.”

Cameron Cato (113 pounds), Elijah Butts (126 pounds) and Tanius Harris (170 pounds) finished third, and Adam Love (132 pounds) and Johnathan Scott (160 pounds) finished fourth.

LAGRANGE HIGH

Hunter Richardson delivered a second-place finish to lead the LaGrange effort in a tournament at Bowdon High on Saturday.

LaGrange finished seventh out of 20 teams.

Richardson made it through to the finals at 160 pounds, and he made a terrific account of himself against a wrestler from Calhoun who won a state championship last season.

In a back-and-forth match, Richardson lost 10-9.

LaGrange head coach Scooter Weathers said Richardson nearly won the match with a pin in the second period.

“If we’d had about two more seconds left in the second period, we’d have stuck him,” Weathers said. “He was close. He wrestled great.”

Logan Pitts, wrestling at 182 pounds, also made it to the championship match before falling.

It was Pitts’ second straight second-place finish in a tournament.

“He’s been a real gem this year, he really has,” Weathers said.

Garret Godby added a fourth-place finish at 106 pounds, and Devonta Williams was fourth at 220 pounds.

“All in all, it was a good tournament,” Weathers said. “We saw a lot of different teams.”

CALLAWAY

Brandon Sutton, after winning a tournament last weekend, earned a third-place finish at the Bowdon tournament on Saturday.